What is Pixel tolerance

Read on if you'd like to know

What a pixel is.

How pixels can sometimes fail in a screen.

How there is an acceptable tolerance level which may vary from one manufacturer to another.

In brief ...

Pixel stands for "Picture Element". The picture on an LCD or plasma display is made up of thousands of pixels which can't usually be seen individually by the naked eye. Each pixel is made up of three sub pixels [red, green and blue]. However working together these pixels make up the image you can see on a display.

As the number of pixels on a screen is so huge, it's possible that there will be some failure at manufacturer level. When ordering a LCD or Plasma display, or a device which has a display built in such as a laptop, you should be aware of the possibility of pixel failure.

There is a commonly accepted "tolerance level" set by each manufacturer, such that a display is only said to be faulty if the number of dead pixels exceeds this level. We can only take back displays as "faulty" if the number of dead pixels exceeds the manufacturer's guidelines.

Further information

Despite what's been said, these faults are usually so subtle that you may never even notice the problem.